Movie review: Julianne Moore lights up the screen in ‘Gloria Bell’

Tuesday

“Gloria Bell,” Sebastian Lelio’s remake of his own Chilean drama, “Gloria,” stars Oscar-winner Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”) as a middle-aged Los Angeles divorcee with a unique zest for life.

If you saw the 2013 original, then you’ll notice from the get-go that the remake is practically a frame-by-frame duplicate, with the setting shifting from Santiago to Los Angeles. But that’s small potatoes. Lelio is thinking bigger, as he’s shown with “Gloria,” the lesbian-drama “Disobedience” and his Oscar-winning transgender identity study, “A Fantastic Woman.” He’s the rare director possessing the knack and insight to tell beautiful stories about women of all sorts. He does it again.

Lelio and screenwriter Alice Johnson Boher (“A Portrait of Female Desperation”) characterize Gloria as a rather plain woman who’s trying to find love and purpose in her mundane existence. Her adult children (Michael Cera, Caren Pistorius) are always busy. Her most constant companion is a creepy hairless cat freely roaming her modest apartment. She might be lonely, but not melancholic. She smiles a lot and sings along to Olivia Newton-John on the car radio. She gets bikini waxes and goes to laughter yoga. By day, she endures an unfulfilling desk job. By night, she dances like no one is watching at a hazy L.A. disco for older singles. There, she meets recent divorcee Arnold (a soulful John Turturro). “Are you always this happy?” he asks her. Sparks fly.

Their relationship moves quickly. Suddenly, Gloria is skydiving and playing paintball at Arnold’s amusement park. He reads her romantic poetry. In the movie’s strongest scene, Gloria brings Arnold to her son’s birthday party to meet her family, including her ex-husband, Dustin (a terrific Brad Garrett). Gloria and Dustin, divorced 12 years ago and are in a stage of peaceful coexistence where they can sip wine, look through old wedding photos and laugh at the past. Arnold (freshly divorced and recently slimmed down thanks to stomach stapling surgery) feels so left out he rudely ghosts Gloria, leaving her hurt, embarrassed and furious. Later, when she finally agrees to see him, Arnold says, “I searched your eyes - I didn’t exist.” Turturro makes it crackle.

Gloria’s life is good, until it’s not. The movie feels like a cinematic version of the Laura Branigan song “Gloria,” which plays in the closing minutes. Like song Gloria, screen Gloria is “headed for a breakdown.” Arnold starts to show he may not be the best match. He can’t shake his two ultra-needy grown daughters, whose ill-timed phone calls are endless, so much so that Gloria throws his phone into a bowl of soup.

Lelio eschews plot for a deep character study of a persona we don’t often see on the big screen - a vibrant 50-something woman, and boy is she a breath of fresh air. She’s a character often relegated to a supporting role, and it’s heartening to see Gloria with all her flaws and poor choices front and center. From behind big giant glasses, Moore lights up the screen. She’s so relatable, playing Gloria as your average mom, friend and insurance adjuster. And she does it with grace, humanity and a bit of grit when called for, effortlessly pivoting from adding “it’s your mother” to the end of voicemails for her kids to telling a love interest to “grow a pair.” She’s real, and maybe she’ll inspire more of us to dance with bells on.

Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@patriotledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.